‘Harry Potter’ Actor Dies

A versatile actor best known for his performances in the “Harry Potter” movies has died. USA Today reports that veteran British stage, film and TV actor Richard Griffiths died Thursday at 65.

Griffiths died at University Hospital in Coventry, England, of complications from heart surgery.

Griffiths played Harry’s unsympathetic Uncle Vernon in the “Potter” movies. He was also known for his performance as flamboyant Uncle Monty in the 1980s cult classic “Withnail and I.”

Agent Simon Beresford called Griffiths, who appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows, "a remarkable man and one of our greatest and best-loved actors."

“A large man and a huge stage presence, Griffiths was one of Britain’s leading theater actors, creating roles including the charismatic teacher Hector at the emotional heart of Alan Bennett’s ‘The History Boys’ — a part he took to Broadway, winning a Tony Award, and repeated for the film adaptation,” USA Today reports.

“Griffiths also played poet W.H. Auden in Bennett’s ‘The Habit of Art,’ a hugely persuasive performance despite the lack of physical resemblance between the two men.”

Daniel Radcliffe, who starred as Harry Potter in the film series, said of Griffiths: "I was proud to say I knew him."

The report adds: “Known for his sense of humor, large store of theatrical anecdotes and occasional bursts of temper, Griffiths was renowned for shaming audience members whose cell phones rang during plays by stopping the performance and ordering the offender to leave.”